Jason Manford has launched a stinging attack on a ‘ridiculous’ hotel policy after he was forced to share a room with his friend because it was overbooked.
The 44-year-old comedian had arrived in Bournemouth on Saturday night ahead of a show the following evening during his A Manford All Seasons tour.
But staff at the Village Hotel told him it had been overbooked for the night – and that because he had arrived so late, his room had been sold to someone else.
Manford went on to blast the chain, which has 33 hotels in the UK, explaining in a video that he had no choice but to share a room with his friend Steve.
Filming himself walking to the hotel room, he said: ‘So we got to our hotel tonight in Bournemouth and it’s fully booked. We were like, “Fine, that’s good – well done you!”
‘They went, “No, no, as in like without you”. So me and Steve, obviously [we’re] in separate rooms. And then we just discovered that basically if it’s fully booked it means that, [you have to share].’
The comedian added: ‘Okay, don’t worry, it is what it is, these things happen – all that b******t! I mean we spent all day together! Oh, well, at least we’ve got a nice view of the car park.’
Manford – who had a show at the Bournemouth Pavillion the following night – then issued a warning to his followers about using the hotel, before calling the chain out directly and reprimanding them as ‘naughty’.
Jason Manford hit out at the hotel chain’s ‘ridiculous’ and ‘fundamentally wrong’ policy
Manford explained to his followers that he had no choice but to share a room with friend Steve
Manford had booked a room at the Village Hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset (file picture)
He said: ‘Oh well, these things happen and all that. Worse things happen at sea. But Village Hotel, just beware, if you are booking and it’s a busy day in a busy city…
‘I mean, we’re lucky that [our booking] was two rooms because that fella coming behind us, a doctor as well, and no room for him. He just had to walk out, and like and there’s no rooms anywhere in Bournemouth tonight.
‘Naughty that, naughty. I’ve heard of aeroplanes doing it, but I’ve never known in 25 years of touring, a hotel doing it. That’s not on, that is not on.’
Panning the camera around to reveal the two single beds in the room, he concluded the video by saying: ‘So we’ve managed to make best of our situation. But that poor doctor, maybe he could sleep on the floor! Anyway, good night.’
He captioned the clip: ‘What’s your minimum expectation when you book a room at @Villagehotelsup? Staff were lovely but policy stinks!’
The next day, Manford returned to social media to explain that hotel management had been in touch, and they also asked him to take down his first video.
But the star flatly refused to delete the post, explaining that he wanted to leave it up to warn people about the company’s practice and to offer support to the hotel staff that had to face the umbrage of upset customers.
He began: ‘This is the final word I’ll say on this. I know the general manager of the Village Hotel’s got in touch with the manager at the Bournemouth one and came and found me and have a word with me and it was very nice to speak to them.
Manford refused to delete the post, explaining that he wanted to leave it up to warn people
The pool at the hotel in Bournemouth which is part of the 33-strong Village Hotels chain
The restaurant area at the Village Hotel in Bournemouth where Manford stayed last weekend
‘For people who don’t know, I got to the hotel last night and the hotel was overbooked. So it meant because we arrived late – we always arrive late because of the two late shows – our room had been resold to somebody else.
‘Now we dealt with it, it was fine, we kept our humour. What can you do, you know what I mean, it’s nobody’s fault in that building, so me and Steve had a laugh and had a shared room and it was fine.’
He went on: ‘Now they asked me to take the video down, politely, but I’m not going to because I think it’s important that people know that this is happening for one.
‘What if it was a wedding or you had kids with you or a million other situations that were much more serious than mine. It’s wrong, fundamentally it’s wrong.’
Manford stressed that the Bournemouth hotel’s staff were not to blame for the situation and urged his followers to save their anger for the people at the top making the ‘ridiculous policy’.
He said: ‘What I will say is it’s not the staff’s fault. And this is the problem with these big companies. That is somebody in an office, making a policy that makes them more money, but they don’t have to deal with the s**t.
‘I didn’t kick off, but I can imagine people would. So the staff then have to deal with upset customers and getting vitriol in heightened emotional situations.
‘So I’m not going to take the video down, because I think it’s right that people know that’s what your company are doing.
‘And I’m going to leave it up as a bit of support for the staff, who aren’t being paid as much as the person who made the decision is and how much that person is making out of this ridiculous policy.
‘So bear that in mind if these things do happen, same with an aeroplane. We’ve all been there, we’ve all been in a moment where the person we’re in contact with is the person that’s going to get it.
‘But we have to take a step back sometimes, just remember that person is just doing their job and they don’t like it either. In fact that’s what the manager said to me last night, “I don’t like this either, I hate it”.
‘It takes a video like this and us talking about it for them, hopefully to have a little look at their policies and think maybe this is not in the best interest of our staff and certainly not of the customer.’
Fans were quick to praise the TV star for bringing awareness to the issue and his ‘nice balanced approach’.
One said: ‘Spot on. Another angle is that a family could book the room, have an emergency and not be able to come. Be told it’s a non refundable booking, with the room double booked and paid for by someone else anyway. It’s all greed, let’s be honest.’
Another added: ‘Well said, shame for the staff having to deal with the fallout from this ridiculous policy’. And a third said ‘Nice balanced approach … and thank you for thinking of us people at the ‘coal face’.’
A fourth wrote: ‘Good on you’; ‘Glad you got it sorted @JasonManford! Welcome to Bournemouth and have a great gig tonight!’
has contacted Village Hotels for comment.